Best Friends
by link no miko
Summary: Team ten, and what the term 'best friends' really means. A simple look at the moments that we hold dear.


**Best Friends**

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Written for Iamzuul for her birthday! Because Team Ten needs more love than it's given, and her Asuma rocks all socks (although sadly, he's not really featured here). Happy b-day, Asuma-sensei!

Takes place in some magical time before the Chuunin Exam. No real spoilers.

As always, comments and criticisms are appreciated.

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Best friends are strange things. They're one of those things you can't really put a true definition to, more like something you just feel and know in your heart. 'This is the way things are,' or 'That's just how it always is;' feelings like that are what tell you who and what a best friend is.

So Chouji, walking behind his two genin teammates, figures that's all he can think to describe the way they are to him. They are the three of them, and while they don't always get along just fine, or while Ino sometimes says mean things, or Shikamaru ignores some things, or Chouji himself does dumb things, they're still always together.

And that's how it always is.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing, spacing out like that?" Chouji blinks as Ino bops him on the head playfully, a slight curve to her lips giving away the fact that she isn't actually angry.

"Thinking."

She raises an eyebrow, letting that quirk to her lips become a full-out grin. "You, thinking?" The words aren't as nasty as they used to be. "I guess miracles happen sometimes, if you hang around lay-a-bouts like _him_ too much."

"Are you saying I'm a miracle generator?"

Ino sends Shikamaru a look Chouji is sure the other boy sees, despite the fact she's a bit behind him. "No, I'm saying that you're so irritating it sticks."

Ahead of all three of them, Asuma-sensei shakes his head.

"Keep it down, or no speaking rights."

Ino turns to their sensei, shock brushing the smirk off her face as she hurries up next to him. "Whaat, you can't do that, Asuma-sensei! We've done nothing wrong!"

He points to himself. "Sensei here." Points to her. "Student there." Points to himself again. "What I say goes."

Ino falls back a bit, arms folded across her chest. "He is _so_ unfair."

Shikamaru smirks just a little bit.

They continue walking, and Chouji doesn't know where it is they're going. All he knows is that Asuma-sensei called them all together before dawn, made them hurry so fast they couldn't eat breakfast (and not eating breakfast makes for bad days), and wouldn't tell them what it was they were supposed to do. Chouji was lucky he had snacks on him (he always goes prepared, just as his father taught him!) and he'd shared with his teammates, but still.

"Asuma-sensei, are we almost there?"

"We're there when I say we are." A puff of smoke as he flicks the butt of his cigarette and exhales.

Chouji waits a minute or so in silence.

"So…are we almost there now?"

"God damnit, _listen _to me before I tie you up and hang you on a coat hook!" He sighs and rubs his temples. "Darn kids, and I didn't even get to have my coffee…"

Now it's Ino's turn to smirk.

Asuma-sensei's outburst, while not uncommon, still manages to keep the children in line for a few minutes before Ino decides she can't stand the quiet and tries to do something about it. Shikamaru is her first target, which makes Chouji smile, because Shikamaru is the type of person who enjoys the quiet more than anything.

"Ne, Shikamaru-kun, don't you think Asuma-sensei is being mean to us for no good reason? It's not like _we're _the ones who woke _him_ up before dawn."

A 'hmph' comes from their teacher's general direction.

Silence comes from Shikamaru's.

Puffing her cheeks out in irritation, because Shikamaru is really good at irritating Ino, the kunoichi turns her attention back to Chouji, who is still smiling happily. She raises an eyebrow at him, but he doesn't notice because he doesn't choose to.

So, taking the initiative as she has all morning, Ino hops back to walk beside her companion, and he turns his smile to her but says nothing.

"So, Chouji-kun, what do you think we're going to do?"

He shrugs. "I'm not sure. Asuma-sensei didn't say."

Her wince is more than slightly noticeable. "That's why I asked what you _think_ we're going to do."

Chouji grins and pulls out a bag of chips (his last one) and offers them to her before he answers. She takes a few pieces and chews them slowly.

"Well, I'm not thinking about where we're going."

She chews a little more and then swallows. Ino's always polite like that. "Then what are you thinking about?" Chouji notices Shikamaru and Asuma-sensei tilt their heads slightly to listen, but doesn't say anything because he doesn't mind sharing his thoughts with everyone.

"About us."

Ino stops; so do Asuma-sensei and Shikamaru. The lazy boy turns around to look at them, curiosity marring his usually impassive face. Asuma-sensei looks like he's grinning, but Chouji thinks that might just be the cigarette getting in the way.

"How do you mean?"

Chouji grins at his oldest friend, enough so that his teeth show and his cheeks scrunch up his eyes.

"I was thinking of how good of friends we are."

Ino blinks, completely at a loss for words, and Shikamaru looks stunned as well for a minute before he smiles, although if you didn't know Shikamaru well, you wouldn't be able to tell. Asuma-sensei is definitely grinning behind that cigarette, and he walks back to Chouji and claps him on the shoulder, putting himself between the rosy-cheeked boy and the stuttering girl.

"That, Chouji, is the smartest thing I've heard all day."

Chouji beams.

"And with that," Asuma-sensei continues, ruffling Ino's hair and then Shikamaru's as he releases Chouji's shoulder and walks back to the head of the line, "we arrive."

He gestures grandly, something Chouji figures he picked up from Shiranui Genma-san, and all three children crowd around him and look.

Ino, naturally, is the first to speak up.

"Sensei…it's just a lake."

"Ah, but is it?"

Ino kicks his shin. Asuma-sensei pulls her ponytail. Shikamaru sighs.

"Troublesome…"

Chouji pushes ahead of them, face split in a huge grin, and then he grabs Ino's and Shikamaru's hands and drags them towards the beach before they can stop him.

"Ch-chouji-kun! What're you doing?"

"Woah!"

"This is perfect!" He looks back at Asuma-sensei, who is standing with his arms folded loosely across his chest, idly crunching his cigarette beneath his heel. The jounin meets the genin's eyes and smiles in that way that Asuma-sensei smiles when he's trying not to show just how happy he really is.

"What's so perfect about a lake?" Chouji sighs at Ino's question, because sometimes she misses the most obvious things, but Shikamaru gives her a look and Chouji knows his friend realizes what Asuma-sensei's gift is, too.

"This is just the place for people like us."

Ino stops and Chouji lets her, releasing her hand and continuing on until he's in the water, splashing happily, laughing. Asuma-sensei follows after them then, his pace much slower, and Shikamaru finds the half-hidden fishing rods and hands one to Ino and then carries one of to Chouji. When the half-submerged boy is set, the lazy boy walks back away from his friend, casts the line, and promptly lies down.

Ino looks at the fishing rod as though it has two heads, then looks back at her friends and grins.

"I'll catch more fish than _either_ of you!"

Chouji is happy to see her finally letting loose, even though she won't go into the water like he does, but that's ok because they're all different. That's what makes them friends.

And so, after Asuma-sensei has to yell at Ino to keep her voice down because she's scaring the fish, and Shikamaru falls asleep three times, and Chouji starts sneezing because it really is too early to be splashing around in a lake, they finally sit around their hastily built fire and cook the fish Asuma-sensei caught.

And even though Asuma-sensei refuses to stop smoking, even while they eat, and Chouji steals some of Ino's fish and Shikamaru picks at his, and Ino can't stop talking for two minutes, they're happy.

Because that's the way things are.


End file.
